Sketch is software that is built specifically for digital designers and has gained massive traction within the industry in the past year or so. It has been around since 2010 and can be a more effective alternative to Photoshop for concept web design.

Sketch is that link between designing in the browser and designing in a visual editor, as it allows text styles – similar to what you can set up in InDesign and similar to how you would end up coding the page. Sketch has the ability to incorporate plugins with extra functionality, such as letting you associate a stylesheet with the design so that you can effectively code the design when it’s finished.

Some features we are particularly interested in are:

Repeatable elements saved as symbols. No need to go through and change all instances of that button to a new colour; change the symbol once and the new colour will be reflected throughout all instances of that button.

Keeping all files together. The ability to design all parts in one file; i.e. different page mock ups plus mobile and desktop versions of the design can all be kept easily in the one file.

Version control. Go back to a previous version of the project without having to save separate files.

Remember though, Sketch is not a photo editor, we don’t believe that it can replace Photoshop, especially in terms of photo editing. Sketch’s strengths are in layout design for digital and we think it will improve our work flow for these types of jobs. More on how it goes after we’ve spent some time using it!